Missing girl's mother says daughter's relationship was violent

2014-03-18T03:28:44Z2014-04-01T03:10:07Z

Alicia Benefield, 19

WASKOM, TX (KSLA) -

Authorities searched throughout Harrison County, TX on Monday for missing 19-year-old Alicia Benefield.

The teen's boyfriend, Rodris Webster, has been named as a person of interest in the missing person's case. Webster, 25, was questioned by Harrison County Sheriff's Deputies Monday for several hours. Authorities say he has been released.

"He doesn't know where she is at, but yet all this evidence keeps coming up," said Benefield's mother Tomekia Hudson.

Hudson said her daughter's relationship with Webster was a violent one. She said that over the past eight months violence took over the couple's relationship and peaked in January.

"Jumping on her and beating her up, and putting her in the hospital...because she had bruised ribs and black eyes," Hudson said.

In January, Webster was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against Benefield.

On March 16, investigators found a muddied hoodie and keys in a dumpster behind the Food Mart off of I-20. Investigators said the hoodie belongs to Webster and the keys are Benefield's.

Authorities searched the area around the dumpster and into the woods twice on Monday.

"Right now we are searching the area, all out here, everywhere," said Hudson, adding that she is working with a search crew of volunteers looking for her daughter.

"I didn't think that people even cared, I didn't know I had so many family and loved ones that cared so much," she said.